This is the latest installment of our bimonthly column Crews on Cruise, spotlighting the people who work behind the scenes of the world’s most memorable voyages—from bartenders and entertainers to ship captains and expedition leaders.
When Alivia Matcas left her hometown of Cahul, a small city in southern Moldova, for Portugal at age 12, it was the start of a much bigger journey. She moved in with an aunt, learned a language, and adapted to a new culture. By 22, she was working as a receptionist in a private clinic but craving both financial stability and the chance to see more of the world. That’s when a recruiter mentioned an option she’d never considered: a housekeeping role on a river cruise ship. “I didn’t even know this world existed,” she recalls. “But as soon as I understood it was river cruising—not ocean—and that I could go home every two months, it felt right.”
Matcas found her stride on Uniworld’s 110-passenger S.S. Victoria, where she became a guest favorite thanks to her meticulous approach and unfailingly warm presence. “I love cleaning,” she says. “It’s therapeutic. You have to really focus on the details, and that’s what the guests notice and appreciate. Folding their pajamas nicely or winding their computer cord—it’s an opportunity to show kindness through cleaning.”
Her discipline has also been deeply personal: the money she earned at Uniworld helped her build a house in Viana do Castelo, Portugal, where she now lives with her mother and 10-year-old brother. Uniworld is also where she fell in love with her partner Vladimir, a housekeeping manager from Serbia, nearly six and a half years ago.
Today, she’s a laundry attendant on Uniworld’s 148-passenger S.S. Beatrice, which sails the Rhine, Danube, and other main rivers. We caught up with Matcas when she was docked in Germany to talk about finding her voice on board, the brother she misses daily, and the tiny German towns that stole her heart.
What does a typical day on the job look like?
“In housekeeping we usually start at 8 o’clock in the morning. We clean the public areas, but we prioritize the staterooms because the guests are often on tour from 9 a.m. to 12 p.m. If we finish a bit earlier, we go to the laundry to help our colleagues. Somewhere around 11 a.m. we have crew lunch, and our break is from 1:30 to 6:30 p.m., which gives us time to rest, exercise, read, or go outside and explore—just like the guests.
